From Marie Laveau, Madame LaLaurie, the culture, history, and street style fashion.
moody and romantic themed
Muse this weekend was Lily Rose Depp <3
xx ss
notes from this weekend
Doing collages, I've found, alleviates artist's block.
xx ss
smiling
The pup bought me my own artist desk and assembled it for me in our little studio! I immediately dumped my bag of everyday art supplies on the surface and accented the view with a fresh bouquet of flowers and my deteriorating chrysanthemums. *Sigh* I'm happy.
A closer look at what I've sketched from last weekend's short, filmed by my boyfriend Chris! I opted for Chanel's sultry Pre-fall 16 collection. Be sure to drag your mouse over to the Media page to see our latest short film! Or just clickity click right here if you're lazy.
amen
A little wake up call from the movie Rushmore.
question of the day
To create the life that I love every day.
xx ss
easter sunday inspiration
Happy Easter! This past month I've been pretty busy jumping all over the place and going through the ebb and flow of things. I just did a little photoshoot with some friends and also participated in a Kickstarter Campaign {in my last post} that I'm really excited for. I also started to take fashion illustration classes again with one of my favorite teachers from back at FIDM. Just kinda wanted to brush up and refresh my mind with some basics!
So it's been hectic, but in a fun way! Staying focused on my work and having some {or maybe a lotta} fun in between! But I think I'm gonna need a spa day... soooon.
I haven't done a little trend report in a while, but this one is on Courtney Trop of AlwaysJudging. The best way I'd describe her style is "simply put".
xx ss
arts district junkies
Week 2 of Mercury Retrograde, and lots of ups and downs. Whether it's real or not, something odd is up in the air and it's been throwing everyone off! Anyway, we got one more week til it ends! Besides the downside of my week, I've still managed to find some fun discovering places and spaces in the Arts District with none other than my girl Jasmine! That area is just full of inspiration.
A beautiful journal I found at Poketo. I didn't buy it because it was a journal that would be more useful for someone who goes to yoga classes. Now if it was a sketchbook, I definitely would've purchased it.
Spotted this wall while Jasmine was driving and took a quick snap.
More adventures comin your way! And yay, my birthday is coming up!
xx ss
winter trends
just scribbling
Everyone's at Burning Man today.. and I'm not. Sad, but not that sad. I definitely feel summer is ending.. the weather is drier and it's breezier these days. I know because Fall is my least favorite season and I'm very ultra mega sensitive to dry weather. I'm starting to stock up on Allegra which by the way works like a charm.. and it's non-drowsy. I've been shopping A LOT this entire month, splurging on clothes andfood. Oh, I also started a weird diet too! I've been doing intense hiking every other day and it's driven me to eat more junk food than healthy food. I've been eating 2-3 Sprinkles cupcakes every week. My favorite flavors are Strawberry, Coconut, and Banana. I've also been skipping out on drinking my green juices every morning. And I've been treating myself out to wine and dine alone. I like to spoil me I guess. But with all the unhealthy eating and hiking, my body's never looked better. I guess it's that extra love I put towards myself ;)
xx ss
fashionista tin box
If you didn't already know, my style of illustrating has multiple personalities. They change in size, medium, and character. Sometimes it's frustrating because it's inconsistent with the rest of my work, but then again I love that I'm flexible with my artwork because I discover new tricks and strategies as I continue to explore my style of illustrating. At the end of the day, I only share work that I'm proud of and love! Instead of taping these little fashion bloggers back into my sketchbook, I decided to stash them in my empty organic peppermint tin box. And how cute is this?! I can't wait to fill it up with more!
mini Willabelle's
mini fashion dolls stashed
organic peppermint tin box
I typically draw four of my favorite outfits of each fashion blogger. Today's muse is Willabelle of Pale Division. Her style is very classy, and she's such a doll. I love her play with pastel colors. She also takes amazing and mouth drooling photos of food. I can't handle it.
xx ss
muse: Christina Caradona
Christina of Trop Rouge instantly became an Instagram favorite of mine... First of all, I love her hair. If I wanted to keep my hair that short I would consider getting a perm to look exactly like hers! She's too cute. And I adore her style. Follow @troprouge !
xx ss
muse: Eugenie Grey
That dress... the color.. the design. Omg. I want it. You want it. Check out the full on photoshoot on Feral Creature! This beautiful kimono dress is from Tularosa! Love, love, love...
xx ss
muse: Angela Fink
Hellooo instacrush! I picked two of my favorite looks from Angela's Instagram. It's relaxed but sexy. Follow @thefashionsight!
xx ss
mini vacay
After working hard these past few weeks, this was much needed. I'm so blessed to have spent this weekend with my amazing and loving family. Loved every moment of it..
role model + muse: garance dore
When I started this blog 2 years ago, Garance was the only fashion illustrator I admired and looked up to. It was her success story of becoming a fashion illustrator and professional photographer that drove me further into my passion.. Garance never went to school to learn how to sketch, she was self taught. That alone was enough to keep me going because 2 years ago, I sucked! Lol. Even though I took fashion illustration classes at FIDM, I was still drawing stiff and unbalanced women. It was frustrating and tiring. But I remained consistent with my blogging and illustrating in hopes to improve and change that.
“Who to copy is easy. You copy your heroes - the people you love, the people you’re inspired by, the people you want to be. ”
When I took a whole year off from working last year to do some soul searching, I studied different styles of illustrations from other artists and practiced sketching every single day. I would spam my friends' and followers' feed on Instagram with my daily illustrations looking for positive feedback but it was a hit and miss each time. I couldn't find my own unique style for the life of me so I would always copy Garance's and my other favorite illustrators as well. Garance was always my number one favorite artist to try and emulate, but then I realized I could never achieve the quality of work that she does or any other artist. I've had to adapt to what I knew now and could do, and work with what I've got. Doing so has eventually helped me come out with my own unique style of illustrating! And it's never felt so right to make it my own.. I've even named it! - Intuitive illustrating :) ..
I'm even more in love and proud of my work now. And at this point I don't look to my role model for help anymore! However, Garance will always be my hero and her work will never fail to inspire me.
Thank you for being true to you Garance! You are an inspiration.. I always look forward to more creations by you! <3
xx ss
happy friday
Voila! Here it is! Happy Friday! The holiday every miserable full-time worker looks forward to every week {lol}! And since I've been working again, I've forgotten how often this greeting is used. I actually get annoyed of it because it's resetting my mind to think you can only enjoy the rest of your week only when it's Friday. But anyway, reality demands it and I hear it so much now that I had to create something relative to this! Since I've developed a habit of drawing on my paper tea cups at work, it's opened my mind to be even more creative with my illustrations. It started with this original drawing here:
Remember this video? It took 3 mugs and a duration of a month to perfect the look of this illustration! And finally.. it's finished!
And it was actually my friend at work who suggested the idea to put this on a mug. And that was perfect because who isn't a coffee / tea drinker in the morning? And who doesn't say "Happy Friday" on Fridays? Right? So, I pushed forward with the idea and here it is! Just know, you guys, that it doesn't have to be Friday for you to start enjoying your life! Take a day off once in a while in the middle of the week! I promise, it's worth it! But if Fridays are forever your favorite weekly holiday, then so be it :)
{celebrate.}
I hope you like it and use it every Friday! You can purchase it here where I also have my old works being sold there as well; and will add on new illustrations in the future.
HAPPY FRIDAY!!!
xx ss
the yoga situation
Om.. I've been obsessed with stretching ever since I was a kid. And I love seeing the different transformations I could play with in my body. In my early teens, I discovered yoga in my dance classes where it was incorporated into our routines. And for the first time I was introduced to the deeper part of yoga.. I'm talking about the odd zen behavior and state that you needed to get into in order to feel that "oneness" with yourself they say. Which I get, because I have a different way of tuning into that, but it just never really worked with me to use with yoga. And to be honest, I didn't like it all too much.. it reminded me of church, lol. But I did enjoy the challenging stretches and poses that definitely put my flexibility to test! And I still do...! And with all the dance classes I've taken over the years, yoga has stuck with me since.
Nowadays I still take dance classes, mainly ballet and bellydance, and Bollywood sometimes. But I don't take any yoga classes. I like do my yoga at home. The atmosphere in a yoga classroom just never really.. resonated with me. So I teach myself, which is doable by the way! :) I remember there was a girl who recommended I should do teacher training and register as a yoga teacher. I was like... ommm, no. Not for me! Lol. And, that's expensivo, so no thanks. Also another reason why I don't take yoga classes, they cost more than my dance classes!
But I still love yoga. And lately I've been focused on toning my stick arms. And I'm so enjoying the process!
I used to be able to do handstands all the time {and walk on my hands!!} when I was a kid.. I'm currently re-teaching myself again.
xx ss
i'm scared
One of my best friends gave this book to me for my birthday two months ago. My first reaction was, "yay! A book!" When I opened it, I was like, "oh yay, I can write in it!" And then I started reading more about it... and I got even more excited. I love testing new limits for myself! I tried to start this book the same week I got it. But when I turned to a couple of pages, I got scared because the things that it asked me to do seemed more like dares. And because the majority of my day takes place at work where it's fast paced, somewhat stressful environment, and with a few difficult people, I wasn't comfortable trying new things with myself! So then I put it away.. for like two months. Until today..
I popped open a bottle of Pinot Noir and I wrote on the very first page, yay! And it isn't the page pictured above, it was.. the name page. But I also wrote on the second page too! And thank god it was easy.. I just had to list what scared me.. I still have a lot of lines to go, which means a I gotta dig deeper than spiders, dirty bathrooms, and aggressive religious people. I'll try and do one page a day... try! I think this'll be a character building experience for me :). I wonder what that'll attract! Woot woot, let's do this!
xx ss
muse: emma
In last week's fashion blogger study, my pick of the week goes to Emma from A Beautiful Mess. I'm such a big fan of her and her sister's blog. They are ultimate blogger queens! They combine DIY fashion, crafts, and cook yummy goodies all on their blog. They're extremely creative.. and that's what I love about them. They are definitely role models of mine. I love their fashion mixology concept. They take 8 pieces of clothing and create 8 different looks. I mean, I don't know about you, but since I've started working, I've been finding it kinda hard to pick out my wardrobe every day and every week. And I find myself repeating my outfits... ughh I hate that! But then again, I did just get complimented today and was told I dress well.. :) I guess I'm looking for a way to make my style a little more interesting.. and different than yesterdays look! Anyway, last week I drew up quick sketches of mini muses dedicated to Emma in my little notebook! I usually do most of my sketches at my desk at work during my lunch break. I know some people hate having lunch at their desks, but if I'm there sketching, then I zone out completely :).
xx ss